November 06, 2012

A de facto form of Texas voter ID?

@gdickson

Texas' strict requirement that voters carry a photo identification card to the polls is on hold because of a federal court ruling, but that didn't stop poll workers in far north Fort Worth from asking voters to voluntarily display their driver licenses.

"If you have a voter registration card and a driver license, please get them both out. If you only have one of them, that's OK, too," a poll worker told several dozen people waiting in line to vote early on Friday at the Summerglen Libary on Basswood Boulevard.

Most prospective voters didn't seem to mind the poll worker's request. But one man in the middle of the line objected. "I've never been asked for my driver license before. Why now?"

The poll worker, a retirement-age man, shrugged and quietly mentioned that he was only acting on a supervisor's orders.

Once inside the voting area, voters who were holding registration cards were told to put their driver licenses away.